


picture perfect

by kirargent



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Artists, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Femslash February, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Painter Malia, Photo Shoots, Photographer Kira, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 04:10:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirargent/pseuds/kirargent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“When Mason asked us to do this,” Kira whispers, “I didn't realize it was going to be so... <i>intimate</i>.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	picture perfect

**Author's Note:**

> For [twfemslashficrec's femslash february challenge](http://twfemslashficrec.tumblr.com/post/137964031134/hey-writers-this-femslash-february) "artists au" and because [zcinmalik](http://zcinmalik.tumblr.com) requested malia/kira + cuddling. Also fills the photographer au square on my tw bingo card!

“When Mason asked us to do this,” Kira whispers, “I didn't realize it was going to be so... _intimate_.” Eyes skimming Malia's face nervously, she catches her bottom lip in her teeth, trying not to fidget.

Malia's lips curve in a tiny smile. “If you'd known, would you have said no?” she asks, her voice quiet, too.

Lying on their sides on a bare mattress on the floor, they're close enough to each other that Kira can just feel the warm touch of Malia's breath on her face when she speaks.

Kira feels embarrassed heat skitter up her neck. Is Malia asking her if she would've _wanted_ the chance to get all cuddly together in pajamas just for the sake of a couple artsy domestic shots for Mason's photography project?

(The answer is yes, _yes_. Kira's been eyeing Malia Tate's mile-long legs and getting tongue-tied at a glimpse of her crinkly-nosed smile since she first moved into the dorm room across the hall from Malia and Braeden. But she's not about to admit that to _Malia_.)

“Uh-m!” Kira says. “I don't—I don't know.” She gives her lip another thoughtful chew. “I mean, Mason really needed our help,” she points out. “And I mean, I owe him for letting me turn in his rejects that time I got coffee all over my pictures.”

(She'd spilled coffee across her photos because out through the open door of Kira's room, Lydia bet Malia wouldn't kiss her for five bucks, and Malia—did, and appeared to be a very skilled kisser, and was _kissing a girl_ , and Kira's brain short-circuited. But Kira's _not. telling. Malia. that._ )

“So, you're saying you would've agreed, even if you'd known what Mason had planned,” Malia says flatly. Her smile is no longer in sight; her eyes are slightly narrowed, examining Kira's face.

Kira's heart runs fast in her chest. She licks her lips, self-conscious under Malia's intent stare. The position in which she's lying felt totally comfortable a minute ago when Mason left the room to answer his phone, but now all of a sudden her muscles feel achy-tense and her hands, curled into her chest, feel awkward, and she'd be way more comfortable if she was like, sitting up, or standing, maybe, and like, wearing actual clothes instead of these loose shorts and a big white t-shirt, and—

“I mean, probably,” she makes herself say. Her voice is a little dry, a little high-pitched. “As a favor to Mason.”

Malia's eyes narrow further. Kira tries not to let her own eyes widen in fear. (She's seen what Malia can do to drunk, handsy frat boys; she may handle her favorite acrylic paints with the utmost care, but she's capable of destruction if she wants to be.)

Finally, Malia frowns. She lets out a little huff that Kira feels against her cheek. “So, your saying yes had nothing to do with you wanting to be this close to me?”

Kira blinks.

“Because I thought it did, but maybe I've been reading things wrong.”

She looks genuinely puzzled.

Kira blinks again.

“Um,” she says.

A quick-moving Mason returns through the doorway, shoving his phone back into his pocket and waving at Kira and Malia. Kira looks at Malia, biting her lip. Malia's eyes stay on hers for a moment, then shift away to follow Mason.

“Hey,” he says. “Sorry about that. Look, Liam has some sort of—Hayden emergency? I don't—” He shakes his head. “I don't really understand what's going on, but he needs... help. So.”

He grabs up his coat from a hook by the front door, scrunching his face in apology when he glances back to them.

“Look, can I text you guys about coming over another time before Friday? I'm really sorry about this.”

“Oh,” Kira says. “Um. Sure.”

“Okay,” Malia says. “But you owe me like, a pizza, or something.”

“Yeah, I'm not shelling out that much cash,” Mason says. He pockets his keys and opens the door. “But I'll buy you a burger or something. We'll talk. Hey—can you guys lock the door when you leave?”

Kira says, “Yep,” and then he's gone.

For a moment they're able to hear his footsteps outside, growing fainter as he departs, and then there are only the sounds of the lights buzzing dully and each of their breaths coming quietly and the faint noises of car tires scraping by outside.

“I should go,” Malia says, but doesn't yet move. It's shadowy but not dark in the spacious room, thanks to the mismatched assortment of thin sheets Mason's tacked up over the wide windows that consume one wall. The place belongs to a friend of a friend of Mason's cousin, and he's got it cheap for the afternoon. It's pretty; it has a high ceiling and a rustic wooden floor.

Malia's face is illuminated only partially by the soft light, her eyes set in shadow and her lips a dark shade of pink in the blue-ish, shadowy lighting.

“Yeah,” Kira echoes, her eyes tracing the lines of Malia's jaw, her mouth. “We should go.”

Face expressionless, Malia shifts, starting to push herself upright.

Kira thinks she can feel her pulse slamming in her throat. _Don't be a weenie_ , she thinks.

Before she can stop herself with thoughts of Malia wrinkling her nose in disgust or socking her square in the nose, Kira reaches out and grips Malia's forearm.

Malia goes still. She looks down at the point of contact.

Malia's skin feels hot against Kira's palm; Kira's hand feels sweaty.

Eyes narrowing, Malia looks up to Kira's face.

“This—” Kira tries, but her voice comes out scratchy and high. She clears her throat. “This is how I wanted to spend my afternoon,” she says, forcing a scared smile. “I would've said yes even if I didn't owe Mason and he didn't need my help.” She adds, meekly, “That was just a handy excuse.”

Malia stares at her for another moment.

Then she says, “I _knew_ it,” and she flops back down onto the mattress, grinning, finding Kira's free hand with her own and tangling their fingers.

Kira's breathless, surprised laugh is cut short by Malia's lips—first a peck, then a long, chaste, closed-lips kiss.

Malia pulls back to grin at Kira some more, tickling the underside of Kira's jaw with the tip of her nose. “Mason has this place all afternoon, right?” she whispers.

Kira responds with her own voice a whisper, too. “Yeah.”

“Good,” Malia says, and she gets onto her knees to nudge Kira onto her back and lean into a deeper kiss with a happy shine in her dark eyes.

  

 

 

 

Mason gets his pictures.

Well, not exactly the pictures he'd envisioned, but he says he likes these better, and even his and Kira's hardass prof likes them, so Kira thinks they did okay.

There is one photo of four feet hanging off the edge of the mattress, the legs of their owners tangled together. There's one shot from behind Kira's head, another body visible lying on the far side of her, both her and Malia relaxed with their hands, not in the camera's view, just touching between their bodies.

And there's one that's Kira's favorite—not from the second shoot, the one that cost Mason a cheeseburger and a large soda, but from the first, when Mason had returned to pack up his equipment after the Liam-Hayden emergency and encountered Malia asleep, Kira smiling.

The photo shows just Kira's jaw and upturned mouth, her neck, and the pillow-messy head of short hair that's tucked sleepily against her collar.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [also on tumblr](http://lesbianlightwood.tumblr.com/post/138676466631/picture-perfect-maliakira-g-1k-read-on-ao3)


End file.
